Took me 7 hours to find a bad ground on a Cummins ISX yesterday

I chased a no-start for 7 hours and it turned out to be a ground strap that looked fine. There was a tiny crack under the insulation that only showed when you bent it a certain way. Anybody else had a ground wire drive them crazy like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_murphy1mo ago

A loose ground on a Volvo D13 had me chasing my tail for six hours once.

emmawood1mo ago

Third bolt from the bottom on the passenger side firewall ground strap... had that exact same problem on a 2015 D13 last winter. Spent a whole Saturday checking sensors and pulling my hair out before a buddy from the shop stopped by and just wiggled that ground... fired right up. What gets me is you can test it with a multimeter and it'll show 12.6 volts fine but load it up and it drops to nothing. I started carrying a bag of star washers and dielectric grease in my truck after that one... saves you that six hour headache next time. Just clean the paint off the frame rail real good and it'll never come back on you.

alice8920d ago

Honestly, I used to think ground issues were always obvious and not worth chasing until I spent a whole day on one myself. Now I see what the fuss is about. @fiona_murphy is right, that Volvo D13 can drive you nuts with a bad ground just like that Cummins.